Stone boxes from Poltalloch

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The stone boxes of Poltalloch lie in the gravel terraces of North Lodge not far from Kilmartin, east of Loch Crinan in Scotland . They consist of groups of short stone boxes (eight in total) and a single, long box. It is said that the boxes at Poltalloch were opened and robbed by Canon Greenwell and Dean Mapleton many years before the excavations. The whereabouts of the finds are unknown.

The single box

A single small stone box is 65 m northwest of North Lodge. It can be seen on the steep edge of the terrace and is about 0.5 m below today's ground level. It measures 1.34 × approximately 0.6 m and is sunk 0.64 m into the ground. The side plate on the slope is tilted outwards. Near its ends, it shows grooves that are 1.05 m apart, while the side plate at the northeast end has a small fold that was used to receive the end plate. Most of the capstone is visible. When the box was examined in 1928, it had already been robbed.

Cluster A

Between 1960 and 1962 four stone boxes and two stone settlements were found 320 m southwest of North Lodge during the gravel extraction. The site was named Cluster A by the excavator.

A 0.35 m deep hole marks the place of the box (grave 1), which was destroyed by an excavator. Nearby are a side plate and the capstone 1.07 m long, 0.5 m wide and 0.1 m thick on average. It has about 70 bowls on its current underside . The box contained fragments of bones (some burned) and teeth from an adult and a child.

The second box (grave 2) measured approximately 1.0 x 0.5 m and was 0.55 m deep. The capstone found in situ is 1.27 m long, 0.68 m wide and 0.1 m thick. The floor is made up of carefully poured pebbles that were discolored by fire. Fragments of charcoal between the bones indicate that a fire had been started in the box before the body was placed inside. The skull fragments were discovered at the southwest end. The crouched body was on its right side, facing east. A drinking cup was found in the box.

The third box (grave 3) has a polygonal shape and is 0.8 m west of grave 1. It measures 1.37 × 0.74 m. Several stones found inside may have formed a cover. A ceramic was found that appeared to have been placed in a hole in the bottom of the box.

The fourth box (grave 4) is about 6.5 m northwest of the first. It measures about 1.2 × 0.5 m and is sunk into the ground up to 0.67 m. The bottom of the box is made of pebbles. The current rhombic shape of the box was caused by a bulldozer. The capstone (1.68 × 1.12 m and 0.3 m thickest) has at least 12 cups (cupmarks) on its underside. An end plate has one shell on the inner side and several on the back. Six teeth and the leg bones of a young adult were found lying on his right side, facing south. Near the teeth, a little west of the center, was a pottery. Nearby is a flat-convex flint knife.

Environment of cluster A

A settlement of eleven small slabs surrounded by a paved floor, which originally had a diameter of about 0.9 m, was discovered 27 m northwest of the box (grave 1). There was a second stone setting, but it was almost completely destroyed.

The pottery from the boxes is kept in Duntrune Castle and the flint knife in the Royal Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh .

In 1960, in the area of ​​the settlement of Bruach an Druimein, about 500 m south of North Lodge and about 50 m north of Cluster B, remains of a cremation that had been disrupted by a bulldozer were recovered. The burial, which was placed in a pit with no grave goods, belongs to a single person.

Cluster B

Cluster B is a group of four stone boxes. It was discovered in a gravel pit on a small ledge 550 meters south of North Lodge. Three of them were excavated by 1928. In excavation reports, they are referred to as boxes A to C.

The first box (box C), which had already been opened in 1910, contained broken bones. It consisted of four slabs and a capstone. It measured about 1.02 x 0.64 m and was 0.56 m deep.

The second box (box A), which is still partially visible, was found approximately 1.8 m to the south. It consisted of four slabs and the capstone and measured 0.94 × 0.51 m and was 0.41 m deep. There was a shallow groove in one side panel, but the end panel was not in it. The chest contained partially burned bones in the northern half. In the south half was a necklace and a flint knife.

The third box (box B) was 3.35 m to the south and measured 1.14 × 0.69 m and was 0.48 m deep, with a bottom formed by flat pebbles. Both side plates were fluted, but the end plates did not fit into the grooves. The cover plate measured 2.06 × 1.04 m and was up to 0.13 m thick. It has machining marks on the underside. The box appears to have been filled with sand and gravel before the top plate was placed. On the floor were fragments of an unburned bone, teeth, a piece of flint, and a few pieces of charcoal. A ceramic was found near the northeast corner and a piece of bronze was found between the plates of the box. The necklace, the flint knife and the receptacle are in the Royal Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

The discovery of a long fourth box in the lower part of the terrace was reported in 1961, but no trace of it remained.

Nearby

See also

literature

  • Kilmartin. Prehistoric and Early Historic Monuments. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinburgh 2008, ISBN 978-1-902419-03-9 , pp. 38-40, (first published in: The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS): Mid Argyll Cowal. Prehistoric Early Historic Monuments (= Argyll. Vol. 6 = Report. An Inventory of the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. 24). HMSO, London et al. 1988, ISBN 0-11-493384- 7 ).
  • Marion Campbell, Mary LS Sandeman: Mid Argyll: a field survey of the historic and prehistoric monuments. In: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Vol. 95, 1961/1962, ISSN  0081-1564 , pp. 1–125, here pp. 74–75, ( digitized version (PDF; 5.95 MB) ).

Web links

Coordinates: 56 ° 7 ′ 1.6 ″  N , 5 ° 30 ′ 27.6 ″  W.